Ben Carson
Dr. Ben Carson says of all the cars he has owned, his favorite is a 2012 BMW 335i. This sporty sedan is often celebrated for its peppy turbocharged engine and nimble handling, but that's not why this sedan gets Carson's vote. This BMW, he says, saved his life.
"In 2012, he was on his way to a hospital in Baltimore and another car ran a red light and rammed right into him," says a spokesman for Carson. "The car was totaled. Carson was pulled out of the car with nothing more than a couple of minor scrapes and bruises. The cops said he should have been dead." At the time, Carson worked as a neurosurgeon at Johns Hopkins University and was scheduled for surgery later that day. The police pried open the trunk so Carson could retrieve his briefcase and then drove him to the hospital so he could perform his surgeries.
The BMW 3-series ranks as one of the safest among 2012 upscale midsize cars, outranking the Lincoln MKZ, Lexus HS and Infiniti G37 with its excellent crash test scores.
Chris Christie
When you're a top politician, you get very few opportunities to get behind the wheel. "I ride in a car most of the time," Governor Chris Christie told CNN's Piers Morgan in 2012. "They don't let me drive anymore. But I ride in a GM car." Given that most governors need to travel with staff, Christie probably isn’t riding around in the subcompact Chevrolet Spark. The most likely candidates for Christie’s runabout are a Chevrolet Suburban SUV, which can seat up to nine members of any political entourage, or the Chevrolet Impala, a large sedan with a roomy back seat that’s perfect for sitting back and cutting deals in. Either way, Christie's car will be keeping him closer to home – the governor has bowed out of the presidential race and returned to his New Jersey post.
Rick Santorum
Before Rick Santorum pulled his bid for presidency, when wasn't focusing on his race, he supported a different kind of competition: car racing. Santorum's campaign has sponsored the No. 26 Ford Fusion in the Daytona 500, and he has even delivered a stump speech from the National Sprint Car Museum. Despite his passion for motorsports, Santorum's personal paddock has not always included a high-performance model. He drove a 2001 Chevrolet Trailblazer to Capitol Hill during his term as senator, reports The New York Times. Politico said Santorum later switched from an SUV to a sedan, buying an Audi A6 in 2008. His campaign spokesman didn't comment on Santorum's current car of choice.
Hillary Clinton
It's been so long since Hillary Clinton has driven a car, she will need to double-check the expiration date on her driver's license the next time she wants to get behind the wheel of one. "The last time I actually drove a car myself was 1996," she told an audience at the National Automobile Dealers Association convention last year. "I remember it very well. Unfortunately, so does the Secret Service, which is why I haven't driven since then."
Though she's had a Secret Service chaperone for much of the last 20 years, Clinton hasn't always been hands-free in the car. According to a 2014 Politico article, Clinton bought a 1963 Oldsmobile Cutlass for $120 while attending law school. "It had seen better days," she said, adding that the Cutlass had trouble cranking over on frosty winter days. "I didn't know what to do and I had no money. I concluded that it was the cold – and the battery would get cold, and that's why it wouldn't start." To solve the problem, Clinton started lugging the battery into her dorm room every evening to keep it warm. She admitted, "That was the limit of my understanding."
Though Oldsmobile has since been discontinued, law students aspiring to be a future president can consider another sedan from General Motors: The 2011 Chevrolet Malibu is both highly rated and affordable.
Marco Rubio
Like his Republican opponent Rick Santorum, Marco Rubio has an eye for Audi. He's leasing a 2015 Audi Q7, The New York Times reported last summer. The Q7 is Audi's largest SUV, featuring third-row seating, an elegant interior and a powerful V6 engine. Once his lease is up, Rubio may want to consider turning in the Audi for a Volvo XC90 or Porsche Macan. These similarly-sized crossovers still carry the same prestige worthy of a presidential candidate but have higher ratings on our list of luxury crossover SUVs.
Martin O'Malley
"The first car Governor Martin O'Malley ever drove was a used yellow 1972 Pontiac Catalina," reports O'Malley's campaign spokesman. This oversized sedan would have weighed in at more than 4,000 pounds and stretched more than 18 feet from chrome bumper to bumper. O'Malley's friends even had a nickname for it: the Banana Boat.
O'Malley, who has dropped out of the presidential race, still apparently has a taste for vehicles of a commanding size and now drives a large Ford Explorer SUV. His wife, Judge Katie O'Malley, favors a more compact platform. A campaign spokesman says she drives an electric Ford (most likely the Ford Focus Electric).
Jeb Bush
Jeb Bush may have Texas roots, but he doesn't drive a Ford F-150 like big brother George W., who used to off-road his pickup across rugged ranch roads. Keeping with family tradition, though, Jeb still picked a Ford, driving the fuel-efficient Fusion Hybrid. And while some candidates have handed over the keys to a private driver, Jeb says he likes to maintain some independence. When he wants to eat out, Jeb told reporters last spring, he will "drive my own car. Park my own car. Get out of my own car." His wife, Columba, has an eye for something a little sportier. She drives a Mini Cooper, according to Jeb's spokesman. Jeb's campaign ran out of gas in South Carolina, ending his run to become the third Bush president.
Ted Cruz
If either Ted Cruz or Ben Carson wins the pick as the Republican Party's presidential nominee, one may want to consider the other for his running mate. Together, they could create a Bimmer ballot. TheStreet.com reports that Cruz, like Carson, has owned a BMW 3-series (though Carson's was totaled in 2012). In this made-up scenario, the main issue for them to debate would be which BMW to buy. If they stay with the 3-series, the Carson-Cruz ticket would be running on one of the best upscale small cars. Or, perhaps the pair should shake things up by switching to an SUV platform. Both the subcompact BMW X1 and the slightly larger BMW X3 have earned the approval of automotive journalists.
Carly Fiorina
Republican presidential candidate Carly Fiorina and her husband, Frank, love driving their Jeep, says one of her representatives. The couple has been having fun in cars for more than 30 years – of their third date, Frank told Bloomberg Politics in 2015, "I just remember making out in the car." Carly's spokesperson wasn't sure which model the Fiorina's currently drive: It could feasibly be a Renegade (Jeep's highest-rated model), the more refined Grand Cherokee or the iconic Wrangler.
Whichever Jeep is parked in the Fiorina garage, it sounds as though Carly doesn't plan on getting exclusively shuttled in the back of a Suburban. During an April 2015 interview on the Howie Carr Show, Carr asked if she still drives. "Of course, oh my gosh, of course," Carly replied. "And I do my own laundry, and I go to the grocery store. I still live a normal life." Carly suspended her bid for president in February, giving her more time for laundry and Jeeping.
Jim Gilmore
Not much is known about the type of vehicle former Governor and former presidential candidate Jim Gilmore currently owns. That's a bit surprising, given that autos were once a driving issue for his 1997 gubernatorial campaign under his "No Car Tax" slogan. Though Gilmore's own set of wheels remain a mystery, a profile in The Washington Post revealed that Gilmore has a penchant for Pizza Hut and Miller Genuine Draft. He also put a lot of miles on his car while driving over Virginian back roads when he previously ran for office. "The strategy was, Go everywhere and do everything," Bryan Slater, Gilmore's campaign manager at the time, told the Post. Slater said the two would travel up to three hours away from their home base of Richmond each evening. Given Gilmore's modest tastes and need for a gas-sipping, solid sedan, he likely would have appreciated a Toyota Camry Hybrid. This four-door has a combined fuel economy of 41 mpg with high reliability scores over the last few model years.
Mike Huckabee
If you look at a roster of vehicles he has recently owned, it's hard to tell that Mike Huckabee's net worth is in the healthy seven figures. He racked up almost 200,000 miles on his 1995 Chevrolet Silverado pickup, according to the Wall Street Journal. Huckabee and his wife have also owned a 2007 Chevrolet Tahoe FlexFuel, MotorTrend reports. In an interview for Grist, Huckabee said that the Tahoe helps lighten his environmental footprint, telling them he sometimes leaves it at home to "ride my bicycle to the store. My kids laugh at me and call me an old geezer, but I love it. Several years ago, I would have driven." Huckabee will have more time to take whatever mode of transportation he wants to the store, after suspending his presidential campaign following the Iowa caucus.
John Kasich
If you ask John Kasich what kind of car you should get, he's likely to say, "Buy a Dodge." The Governor of Ohio speaks highly of the brand, telling the Detroit News, "Whenever my father needed a new car, he always looked around. But he always bought a Dodge.” Kasich doesn't elaborate on the exact model of the family car, but he enjoys telling the story, as he did to the Cincinnati Enquirer in 2010, of an annual childhood road trip. With Kasich's mother, his aunt and his uncle along for the journey, Kasich's father took the helm for a 150-mile journey from Pennsylvania to Lake Erie.
It's not clear what type of car Kasich is currently driving, but if he were to take on a similar family road trip, he may want to test drive a Dodge Durango. With its third row seat, this SUV can carry up to seven people in its comfortable interior.
Rand Paul
Rand Paul has dropped his bid to be the Republican presidential candidate. But in the height of his run, Paul must have spent his days focusing more on his campaign than his car, because he wasn't completely sure what he drives. In a 2014 interview, Paul told The Des Moines Register that he thinks his car is "a Mazda. I don't know what it's called. It's a (Mazda) 3 or something. It's just a little hatchback." Paul's campaign spokesman opted not to say if this is still Paul's main personal vehicle.
The Mazda3 is our top-rated hatchback for 2014, earning the endorsement of many automotive journalists as one of the most fun-to-drive small cars. Paul, who says that he tries to exercise every day, might find that the Mazda3’s peppy performance and agile handling compliment his athletic lifestyle.
Bernie Sanders
These days, Bernie Sanders spends a fair share of time traveling in a black-on-black SUV, but occasionally he breaks free for something a little more economical. During his first year as a U.S. Senator, Sanders showed up to a news conference in a car that had been converted to a plug-in hybrid (pictured above).
It took a few years after this event before carmakers started mass producing plug-in hybrids, but now more than a dozen are for sale in the U.S. One of the longest in production is also one of the current front runners in the hybrid market: the Chevrolet Volt. If Sanders ever drove this car, he would likely approve of its fuel savings (the Volt can drive up to 53 miles on electricity alone) and its working-class price tag (MSRP starting at $33,995).
Donald Trump
Donald Trump's lifestyle resembles that of a rock star, and his garage is no different. With his 11-figure fortune, Trump has been able to amass a jaw-dropping collection of cars. According to Business Insider, among his Rolls Royces and McLarens, one of Trump's most notable cars was his 1997 Lamborghini Diablo VT Roadster, finished in Le Mans Blue. This distinctively-chiseled supercar was certainly a status symbol in the ‘90s. Its new car price tag (MSRP was $273,000) and limited production (only 200 were built) allowed only the top echelon to buy a Diablo VT Roadster.
Supercars are out of reach for most pocketbooks. If you want to feel like a super delegate with a more reasonably priced sports car, the Porsche Boxster and Jaguar F-Type offer presidential-grade prestige for under $100,000.
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Each of the presidential candidates in this year's election have traveled their own road as they make their way towards the White House. Some came from modest means, proud owners of practical cars before their district was shifted from driver's seat to back seat. Other aspirants could afford to park more expensive models in their garage. If you want to emulate your favorite candidate, read on to see which cars they drive (or have previously driven).